Where Did All the Kids Go?

Well, Halloween has come and gone. Friday was a bit anti-climatic though...I only got 4 Trick or Treaters this year!! What the heck!!?? Last year I had about 40 - that is a huge drop in numbers. The elementary school up the street from our house had some sort of party during prime trick or treating hours. I think they took all of my trick or treaters. On an upside, I did have some strange woman ring my doorbell and tell me she loved how I decorated the exterior of my house...especially the mummy. Well, I guess I will take that compliment...but I would rather have had a bunch of kids ring my doorbell instead. Now I have a TON of candy and you all know that I have no self-control when it comes to chocolate. I HAVE to eat it.

Happy Halloween!

(Image from I Think I'm an Artist)

It's Halloween night,

and all through the house,

Not a creature is lurking,

not even a mouse...

The cobwebs are spun

by the chimney with care,

In hopes that some monsters

soon will be there.

Have a Spooky and Happy Halloween!

Parker's Halloween Party

Parker had his first Tot Halloween Party this last weekend. I was so nervous about it...how do you entertain a bunch of toddlers? It isn't like you can play a lot of games and make a lot of crafts.

The party ended up a much bigger success than I could have ever imagined. There were 9 toddlers in all, plus their parents. I set up a table at the back with plain pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and icing pens for parents to help the older tots decorate. I cleared a large space on the floor and brought down Parker's toys. I also have a dozen little beach balls (various sizes for babies) that had goofy skeleton faces on them. The kids really enjoyed those.

(Some of Parker's new friends)

It seemed that everyone had a lot of fun. We didn't really have any Tot meltdown (I was expecting a few). The kids all left with a party favor bag filled with a Halloween Rubber Duck, Halloween bubbles (both from Oriental Trading Co), and Goldfish Crackers.

(More of Parker's playmates)

Gothic Halloween Dinner Party

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, our Halloween Gothic Dinner Party was a hit! The food was yummy and the drinks were FANTASTIC (thanks Jess!). Conversation never slowed down. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of the guests once they showed up (I blame the yummy Dracula Kisses...very strong with lots of liquor!).




Guests were greeted by a creepy apothecary table set with party favors (home-made Devils Food cupcakes with cream cheese icing), a brain, zombie hand, and skull. Creeping on the wall was Bernice, my HUGE spider. She spun her web all over the house.

Guests were greeted with a specialty Halloween cocktail...Dracula's Kiss or Pumpkin Pie Martinis. Both were scrumptious and went down WAY TOO smooth. I lined all of the glasses with black sugar and found these adorable sugar glass clips at Target. We all enjoyed cocktails and appetizers for a while. I will be sure to write a separate post for some of the best recipes for this weekend's events. They were a real hit.

I am not a big fan of the whole orange and black Halloween decor. I favor a black and white color scheme. It is a little bit more elegant and unexpected for Halloween. The table was set with this beautiful velvet burnout rose fabric I found at Hancock's Fabric. It thought it was perfect to go over a plain white table cloth. I had so many more plans to dress the table (IE. fold the napkins into bones), but being sick for that week and a half really forced me to take things off of my "to do" list. Oh well...there is always next year. You can bet I all ready have so great ideas for next year's dinner!

Our house has this old built-in bar cabinet. It was perfect for our setting - just add spider webs and cheese cloth! You can't tell from the pictures, but I had all of the drinks and appetizers served on old, tarnished silver trays. Over the past years, I have gone to thrift stores and picked up various old silver trays for this very purpose. They look great and elegant, tarnished and creepy, and hardly cost a thing! They are more unexpected than serving things on paper plates or Halloween trays.

I made sure that the entire house was decked out...even the second floor (where the bathroom is).

Hector, the black owl, looked over everything to make sure no one was misbehavin' too much.

Head Waiter

(image from Martha Stewart.com)

One of the many things I did last week was make this Head Waiter for my Halloween tabletop center piece. It had quite an impact on the table but was really simple to make. This project is even easy enough for older kids to do. You can find the Styrofoam head at most beauty supply stores. I purchased mine at Sally's Beauty Supply. The project uses Mod Podge, so you won't be able to complete the project in one sitting since you have to let that paper dry. I would guess that all together, this project only took about 2 hours to complete.

My finished piece!

This Weekend's Chaos

Phillip and I survived this weekend's chaos. I don't know what sort of crack I was smoking when I decided to host two Halloween events back to back. But we did it and we live to tell about it.

At the last minute, we had a few hiccups regarding the guest list for our Gothic Halloween Dinner Party. Two couples had to cancel at the last minute - both with VERY good excuses...but we ended up with way more food than what we needed. Still, we ended with a dinner party of 6 and we had a lot of fun. I will have pictures up later of the decor and table. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of all the people dressed. Boohoo. Silly me.

The event I was really worried about was Parker's First Toddler Halloween Party. I had no idea how to entertain a room full of 1-2 year olds and stay within the Halloween theme. But that, too, came off without a hitch. As a matter of fact, we had 9 babies! It was so cute. They were all dressed in costumes. I will have pictures and more information of that little party up soon as well.

Spooky Walls Murals and Frustrating Spider Webs

(Image from Pottery Barn)

I love, Love, LOVE this Halloween wall mural from Pottery Barn - so sophisticated and creepy at the same time. Plus it is in my favorite Halloween color pallet - Black and white. Unfortunately, it look like it is all ready sold out! I guess that means that I won't be purchasing it on the big day after Halloween sales (those sales are always my FIRST priority on November 1st).

In case you are as obsessed with Halloween as I am, I provided a link to some great Halloween decorating inspirations from one of my favorite bloggers, Create My Event. Check it out...she will be doing a whole series this week on Halloween. YEAH!

As for me...well, I am all ready stressing. This is the first time I have tried to pull off any sort of festive get-together since I have had Parker, and let me tell you it is HARD! It literally took me all day yesterday just to get the bar somewhat decorated and organized. Hanging a spider web is quite impossible when I have to put the spider web down every 30 seconds to move him away from something harmful. It is my own fault really...I still haven't gotten around to baby proofing our downstairs area. I figured What's the point? Until Phillip puts all of his tools away from his porch project (which he won't do until the winter sets in or he finishes the porch...you can guess which one will happen first), baby proofing downstairs kind-of doesn't matter.

Halloween Favor Bags

(Old fashioned Halloween ornament favor boxes from Plum Party)

(Candy Boxes from Martha Stewart.com)

(Headstone favors from Martha Stewart.com)

(Bat favors from Martha Stewart.com)

(Broom and Pumpkin favors from Martha Stewart.com)

I love hosting dinner parties, so I am especially excited about hosting my first Halloween Gothic Dinner Party. Setting a table and scene is so much like designing a store front window...I really love it. Unfortunately, my budget is really tight this year, so I won't be able to go as over the top as I usually do. Hopefully, I will be able to make a lot of the things that I will need. To begin with, I need to decide what I would like to do for favors. I always want my guests to leave my dinners or parties with a favor. It reminds me of when I was a kid and got silly little toys and such as a special little treat. Why should kids have all of the fun? Other than time, it doesn't cost much to do. There are just so many choices out there. Above are just a few of my favorites.

It's Finally October!

(Image from Martha Stewart.com)

I hope you are ready! Now that it is October, I will be talking non-stop about Halloween. I am sure you thought I was all ready talking about it a bit too much, but trust me - that was nothing! For this year, I am planning a small Gothic Dinner Party, Trick or Treating and a Tot's Halloween Party for the Family Group we belong to.

To be quite honest, I am nervous about the Tot's Party. I know how to entertain adults and maybe even young kids...but how on earth do you entertain a bunch of kids 3 years and younger? Luckily, the number of kids will be small and one of my friend's will be helping me figure it all out. But if you have any suggestions, please send them my way.

I found this easy decoration on Martha Stewart.com. All you need is some garbage bags and a bit of time! I think the overall look is pretty spooky. I plan on doing this to my porch. It may not look quite what I am hoping for because Phillip still has the porch on stilts and such, but I hope that with a bit of other magical touches, it will send a chill up my trick or treater's spines.

I've Decided

(image from Buy Costumes.com)

I finally ordered Parker's Halloween costume. I decided on the spider. It was a hard decision for me. Like all of you, I preferred the spider over Humpty Dumpty (though that was darn cute), but Phillip had told me that some other guy he works with bought the same costume for his baby. That instantly put a spoiled taste in my mouth...I don't want some other baby in Parker's costume! But after much thought (and changing my mind every day), I finally decided to get over it. I will never see this "other baby" and the guy doesn't even work in Phillip's department. So I guess we will be safe. I will be holding my breath.

Parker's Halloween Costume

(all costumes located at Buy Costumes)

I need your help! I am trying to decide what Parker should be for Halloween and can't make a decision. I want to order his costume by the end of the week because I am finding that all of the cute ones I am considering are all ready starting to go out of stock in his size. Yikes! Above are some of the ones that we thought were super cute.

(Image from Buy Costumes)

I think I have it narrowed down to the spider and Humpty Dumpty, but I keep changing my mind. Obviously, I would make sure that Parker had little white pants and a long sleeve shirt on under his egg costume. What are your thoughts? Which costume do you like the best? Please email me or comment...I'll be waiting.

I'm Going Batty!

(picture from MarthaStewart.com)

I found this j'adorable (as Jonathan Adler would say) bat garland at Martha Stewart online. It looks so easy to make! I can't wait to try to make it. I think it would look great in my entry way and on my fireplace mantel (if I can only get Phillip to move all of his tools for the porch project out of my way).

By the way, have a great weekend!!

Spooky!

I know it is "early", but I am all ready so excited for Halloween. It is definitely tied with Christmas for my favorite holiday. Actually, I may even love Halloween more. I spent all of last weekend going through my collection of Halloween decorations to get them organized and ready. Last year, I didn't get my Halloween fix since we had just moved to Minneapolis and I was pregnant. Phillip and I usually host a party and go all out for the event. I am not sure if we will do a party yet this year, but I know that I am going to go all out for our little Trick or Treaters!

Our old house in Boise was located in a great family neighborhood. You would think that I would have tons of kids knocking on my door - but I didn't get one! Not even the little girl across the street!! And believe me - I went all out for decorations and even bought the BIG candy bars...no candy corn at my house! Unfortunately, a couple blocks up from our house was this street of HUGE money homes. The whole street would go all out for the event. Seriously - some of these homes would even hire actors to play zombies and such for the grave yard scenes. Police had to monitor traffic because the entire city would trick or treat on that street. It was actually really cool and I loved watching all of the kids get so excited about it. But alas, as hard as I tried, my little old house just could not compete. But this year...!

Last year I had 40 kids - almost all of them little. I felt so bad because I barely carved a pumpkin for them. This year, they are in for a treat! I have BIG plans! I am determined to be known as the coolest house to visit for Halloween.

Last year, I purchased this 6 foot mummy at Grandin Road. I am going to place him next to my door to welcome the kids.

I also got these ghosts from Grandin Road. Very EERIE! Just imagine them next to a cemetery scene with some fog...

Check out Grandin Road's Halloween Haven shop for more fun products.(http://www.grandinroad.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=2759&path=1%2C2%2C2759 ) Be sure to check them out after Halloween when they have their big sale - that is how I purchased my cool mummy.